Adverb

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Peopled with people properly peoply:

Greatly Grimly, a bone of contention.

Hardly Quickly, also in contention.

Fully Flatly, an old flame, gets the blame.

Lushly Lovely, to her they’re “all the same”.

Fairly Squarely, her oldest dearest friend.

Rarely Therely, another chitchat friend.

Lonely Lovely, Mum, one foot in the grave.

Sadly Kindly, looks for someone to save.

Saintly Faintly, a networking hermit.

Wildly Weirdly, his cousin, a nit.

Sneakly Peakly, a next-door neighbour.

Slowly Gently, her faithful Labrador.

 

Adverb (February)

In Old Arts philosopher Barry Taylor fumed about adverbs. What do they govern? They blur logic. Wittgenstein rarely used adverbs. And why? Is it Wittgenstein who is rare or his use of adverbs? Should they be banned from dialogue? Across South Lawn, in Medley, poet Vincent Buckley drank in the wobbly signifier. He was old school. Use adverbs sparingly, even in poems. They set up over-determined suggestiveness, turn insufferably Baroque. Their rhymes sound G&S. What would the Irish do? Even through summer, sleepy February, they agonised about adverbs. Now they have gone where, blessedly, such things no longer vex them.